Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has finally started gaining back complete fitness and is expected to take the field for the next Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 13. On Tuesday, he suffered a muscle injury on his leg during practice, a day prior to the match against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) which left no option for him than to sit out of the match as a precautionary measure.

In Rohit’s absence, Kieron Pollard led the franchise and they won that game by 3 wickets at the Wankhede stadium on Wednesday, with the regular skipper was replaced by debutant, Siddhesh Lad in the squad. However, on Friday, MI’s Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan has expressed that the franchise will assess Rohit’s condition after practice but he is available for selection. Rohit has also seen batting in nets at the Wankhede Stadium.

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Zaheer said, “He is definitely available, available for selection and he is very confident, so that is a very positive sign right now for us. He is going to practice and get a better gauge of things, but we are pretty confident (of him playing).”

Rohit is key for MI in the IPL and he is also expected to play a crucial role for India in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Under Pollard’s captaincy Mumbai defeated KXIP in a humdinger and after the game, the stand-in skipper said, “Obviously, Rohit is the captain of the team and it was only a precautionary measure for the team. He should be back in the next game. I would gladly give it back to him and field at the boundary, while also thinking of what to contribute to the team.”

Mumbai Indians will host Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 13 and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 15 before traveling to Delhi for their match against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 18.